He’s grateful. Grateful that those hours he spent in a Calgary cell after a 2011 arrest helped remind him of the importance of hanging onto his sobriety.

Grateful that the night of promiscuous sex he spent with Calgary women nearly three years ago made him re-evaluate his attitudes about relationships and the opposite sex.

And, finally, grateful that his arrest put him in the news and reminded people that his comedy has a certain edge to it.

“Being that I’ve become a much more conscientious and spiritual individual — I’m leading a much more, I suppose, healthy and positive life — it was kind of a nice treat to be in the news for an arrest,” says the 39-year-old stunt performer and comedian with a laugh, in a phone interview from a tour stop in Buffalo. “It made me feel edgy and racy.”

OK, so he may be partly joking about that last point. He is a comedian after all.

But Steve-O, born Stephen Gilchrist Glover, is serious about how his Calgary experiences changed him. It was a very strange story, even for the very strange world of shock comedy. By 2011, the star of the Jackass TV series and spinoff movies was clean and sober after years of alcohol and drug abuse. While his standup was certainly not without the wild and painful stunts he had become known for, he had also become more serious about polishing the comedy routines he was bringing to the Laugh Shop at Hotel Blackfoot.

But when reminiscing about his wild past on Calgary television, Steve-O talked about a 2003 New Year’s Eve show at MacEwan Hall that had turned into a bit of a melee. It ended with Steve-O and others having to “flee from the venue running from cops.”

Someone was listening. And when the comedian tried to leave Calgary, he was arrested at the airport for an outstanding warrant. Apparently, unbeknownst to him, he had been charged back in 2004 with assaulting a fan with a weapon. He was hauled off to a Calgary jail cell.

“I was locked up in this cell for like 15 straight hours,” he says. “And it seems every person who was paraded by, booked into the station after me, was just a really shining example of why I need to be extremely grateful for and hang onto my sobriety for dear life. They were being marched by my cell, just covered in blood and just horrible s---. I was just thinking ‘Wow, what a wonderful thing this is for me. What a great reminder not to become complacent about protecting my sobriety.’ It all made me very grateful.”

Steve-O says the issue has been resolved, although seems to legitimately not remember how exactly. He thinks that he may have paid a fine and is quite certain that he didn’t have to return to Calgary for a court date.

But the arrest was not the only life-altering moment from that trip.

He says he also has very clear memories of his extracurricular activities during those 2011 performances at the Laugh Shop. There were women, he says. Lots of them. This also led to some soul-searching.

“I should probably be a little careful of how I say this and not be too specific,” he says. “I know for a fact that I have never been so promiscuous as I was in Calgary. In one night, there were intimate encounters with five different women. It was outrageous. And the thing is, that — and just acting that way in general — really brought about a concern for me that if I keep acting this way, how am I ever going to be in a meaningful relationship? I really started to think about that and I resolved to not act that way because I didn’t want to be a miserable, lonely old guy who can’t be faithful to a women. Now, I’ve added sexual sobriety to my whole program of recovery.”

So there you have it, Calgary. Among our many notable achievements, the city can also take credit for convincing a shock comedian to keep his sobriety and to become celibate until the right girl comes along.

Of course, the humour in all this is not lost on Steve-O. His new standup show, which begins a three-night run at the Laugh Shop on Thursday, is filled with honest reflections by the comedian about his past struggles, another reminder that comedy often comes from dark places.

Steve-O first gained popularity on the 2000-2001 MTV show Jackass and its spinoffs, which found him performing outrageous and often painful stunts and pranks. It led to three spinoff movies and acting careers for himself and co-stars Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera. It also helped usher in a golden age for the sort of shock comedy that still thrives today on YouTube. But Steve-O was self-destructive in other ways, in particular with drugs and alcohol. It all culminated in a breakdown in 2008, where he reportedly attempted suicide and spent some time in a psychiatric ward.

So Steve-O has certainly come a long way. Life on the road is now free of both sex and drugs. When asked what he does while on tour these days, the vegan and animal-rights activist says he likes his hotel rooms to come equipped with a stove so he can cook vegetables.

“At this point I’m busy growing up and being a mature guy,” he says. “That in and of itself is just so f---ing funny. What’s it like for Steve-O to try to grow up. I have so many conflicts around it. This is more than I should be revealing to the press at large. But I got to say that my comedy show as it has been developing is really revealing and intimate and hilarious too. For anyone who came to see me in Calgary two-and-a-half years ago, I’m f---ing way better now.”

Still, those who harbour nostalgia for the Jackass-era stunts that Steve-O became famous for — which, over the years, have included stapling his scrotum to his leg and having vodka injected into his bloodstream by an IV — won’t be totally left out.

Steve-O’s shows still contain certain stunts, although he does not get into too many details.

“I still do wild tricks and the end of the show,” he says. “I have this really exciting new closer. It’s a highly erotic and acrobatic manoeuvre.”

Steve-O performs at the Laugh Shop at Hotel Blackfoot Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

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Calgary arrest played big part in reformation of shock comedian Steve-O

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